Day Thirty-Three

This was the evening Hymn from my prayers a few days ago and I've wanted to share it with you all because I was so moved when I read it, but there has been so much else happening that it's been sitting in the drafts folder all week. Finally I have a chance to share it with you. It's called "Throw out the Lifeline" by Edwin S. Uffort.

Throw out the lifeline across the dark wave;
There is a brother whom someone should save;
Somebody’s brother! Oh, who then will dare
To throw out the lifeline, his peril to share?

• Refrain:
  Throw out the lifeline! Throw out the lifeline!
  Someone is drifting away;
  Throw out the lifeline! Throw out the lifeline!
  Someone is sinking today.

Throw out the lifeline with hand quick and strong:
Why do you tarry, why linger so long?
See! he is sinking; oh, hasten today
And out with the life boat! Away, then, away!

Throw out the lifeline to danger-fraught men,
Sinking in anguish where you’ve never been;
Winds of temptation and billows of woe
Will soon hurl them out where the dark waters flow.

Soon will the season of rescue be o’er,
Soon will they drift to eternity’s shore;
Haste, then, my brother, no time for delay,
But throw out the lifeline and save them today.

This is the lifeline, oh, tempest-tossed men,
Baffled by waves of temptation and sin;
Wild winds of passion, your strength cannot brave,
But Jesus is mighty, and Jesus can save.

Jesus is able! To you who are driv’n
Farther and farther from God and from Heav’n,
Helpless and hopeless, o’erwhelmed by the wave,
We throw out the lifeline—’tis, “Jesus can save.”

This is the lifeline, oh, grasp it today!
See, you are recklessly drifting away;
Voices in warning, shout over the wave,
Oh, grasp the strong lifeline, for Jesus can save.

Happy Lenting.

Day Thirty-Two

A couple days ago my friend Keith Kitchen updated his blog with an open letter to Pastors expressing some concerning trends he has noticed in his travels as an itinerate singer/songwriter over the past few years. Keith started his career in the pastorate himself and so understands the challenges and frustrations of shepherding a flock and for the past number of years Keith has performed at dozens of churches across Canada (including twice at Estevan Alliance) and so he has a unique vantage point with which to make these comments. You can check out the source here for the original article and lots of other great information on a gifted and talented Christian artist - but I thought it worthwhile to include the full text of his blog in this post for you to read. I'll provide some additional commentary afterward.

Today is Tuesday, and pastors everywhere are back in the office after their “day-off”. Most pastors take Mondays off which is lousy. No one else takes Monday off, so all of their friends and family are usually at work/school. Usually, the only other people they can connect with on a Monday are other pastors, but who wants to talk “shop” on their day off? So they usually spend the whole day alone, trying to find something fun and edifying to do, which seldom works, and just leaves them feeling frustrated. Tuesday comes with mixed feelings since they don’t get back to the office feeling rested, but there is at least some sense of relief in knowing what to do with yourself rather than sitting at home channel-surfing or wandering aimlessly around the mall looking at “stuff”

So Tuesday it is, you’re a pastor, and here you are back in the office. Doubtless, you have meetings to schedule, people to counsel, email to answer, sermons to write, (musicians to phone back!!!!!) and all the myriad other tasks involved with leading and feeding your congregation. I understand the demands on your time and some of the things that weigh on your mind, but I have a request. (No, not to book a concert. Well,… yes, but that’s for another time.) While you’re planning this Sunday’s service, would you arrange to include a scripture reading (2 would be great), and take time to teach us how to pray?

Lately people have been asking me about the state of worship in the church. A lot! For awhile, I couldn’t figure out why. Although I did serve as a worship pastor for 5 years before I found myself in the middle of my present ministry as an itinerant singer/songwriter, that hardly makes me any kind of expert. But, I suppose I’ve been around a lot. I’ve visited around 200 churches across Canada during my travels over the past 4 years. I’ve heard a lot of announcements, heard a lot of sermons, and listened to a lot of worship teams. I’ve been to a few Mega-churches and to a number of really small churches (mini-churches?). So I guess that gives me a bit of a unique perspective. The more people ask, the more I think about it, and I’ve noticed a few trends emerging. I was sharing these thoughts with a good friend a little while ago, and he convinced me to write them down.

To give you a bit of context, let me tell you where I’ve come from. I came to faith when I was 16 in a little Baptist church in Regina in the mid-nineties. Up until that point I’d had very little exposure to church except for the odd service at the Orthodox church my grandparents attended. Most of that was in Ukrainian. The “worship wars” were in full swing when I started attending, but at that time we were only just starting to use guitars in the services at our church. I was fortunate in that my first experience with church was a very good one. What continually drew me back, Sunday after Sunday, was not the “guitar music”. although I found that much more easy to sing and understand than the hymns which had been a staple before I got there. but the liturgy.

The Baptist tradition is a relatively diverse one. A Baptist church can be anywhere along a spectrum from charismatic and almost indistinguishable from a Pentecostal church on one end, to very liturgical and almost indistinguishable from an Anglican church on the other end. The church I attended was on the liturgical end of the spectrum. We started the service with a Call to Worship and an invocation. A proper one. Usually a reading from the Psalms or another portion of scripture. After that, we’d sing a few carefully chosen hymns & choruses followed by the prayer of confession.

It’s hard for me to overstate the importance of having a regular Prayer of Confession. Including it in worship does at least two things. First of all, practicing a regular discipline of confession will lead to spiritual health, both corporately and individually. Confessing regularly helps us to keep “short accounts” with God. Rather than waiting until we’ve done something wrong to confess, regular confession makes it easier to identify attitudes and motivations before they lead to destructive action. Taking time for regular reflection and introspection nurtures and sustains an attitude of humility. Our churches would all be a lot healthier if everyone were a lot more humble, since it is in being forgiven that we learn to forgive. ??Secondly, when followed with an assurance of Pardon, it serves to communicate the gospel in its simplest form. Namely, that our sin separates us from God, but by repenting from our sin and clinging to Christ, we are reconciled to Him. I don’t remember hearing a “Gospel Message” during the first 4 months I attended church, but the regular rhythm of confessing and receiving pardon every week taught me the Gospel because I was, in essence, acting it out.

After the prayer of confession there was usually another song or two, followed by the offering, special music, children’s song & story (what ever happened to that?) and the Prayers and Petitions. The importance of having corporate prayer for one’s church family, community, city, country and the wider world to draw one’s attention off of themselves and toward the needs around them should be obvious, and has probably been discussed elsewhere. One of the most meaningful aspects of both the Prayers and Petitions and the Prayer of Confession at my church was the time of silence given at the end of the corporate prayer to offer individual prayers. It’s a proven principle in education that if you want someone to really learn how to do something, you need to tell them how to do it, then show them, then give them a chance to try it out. Doing corporate prayer in this way was literally how I learned to pray. ??The final element that we had every Sunday was not one, but two scripture readings. Usually one Old Testament reading and one from the New Testament. One of these would have been the text for the sermon. The other would have been a secondary text, or at least an alternate text that provided the context for the first text. Now read this very carefully, because it’s important. I can’t think of a single church that I’ve visited in the last year and half that’s had a scripture reading. Not one! I keep trying to find an explanation for this (pastor is busy, can’t find readers, service is too full, desire to keep the service seeker-oriented, etc.), but none of these are really sound reasons.

I recently finished reading “The Last Word”, an excellent book on understanding scripture by eminent scholar and Bishop of Durham, N.T. Wright. He concludes the book by arguing that if we claim to be a people whose belief rests on the foundation of scripture and who submit to scripture as our final authority, then the public reading of scripture must be central to our worship. It’s hypocritical for a church to refer to themselves as “bible-believing” to forsake the public reading of scripture. Ironically, many of the traditions whom evangelicals consider to have wandered away from orthodoxy faithfully read the scriptures every Sunday as part of their liturgy.   In contrast, evangelical churches seldom read scripture.  At most, the preacher might read the relevant portions during their sermon. But that’s not the same thing. There need to be times when we allow scripture to speak for itself. Do we really believe in the power and the authority of scripture if we can’t read it without felling the need to comment on it? So pastors and church leaders ask yourselves, “What is central to our worship as a church? Scripture, or the preacher’s interpretation of it?”. Scripture itself commands us, “Devote yourself to the public reading of scripture.” (1 Timothy 4:13)

I used to be responsible for planning the services at my church. I know how these things get squeezed out. There’s a missionary couple home from the field who want 10 minutes to share about their ministry, or a promo video, or a guest musician. And you know why prayer and scripture are the easiest to leave out? Because no one will notice. At least not right away. But lead a church five or ten years without corporate prayer and scripture reading and soon you’ll have a church of prayerless biblically illiterate Christians, and then everyone will notice.

So please, as you sit in the office this Tuesday, think about Sunday, and carve out some time in the service to pray with us, and read the scriptures to us. Thanks for all you do.

Sincerely,
Keith

I for one found this post wonderfully validating as Keith summarized some of the things that we have been trying to move toward as a church over the last year. 1)A renewed focus on corporate prayer with an element of interactivity in our congregational prayer time; 2)A return to public reading of scripture as more than the pastor quoting text in the sermon; and 3) (so far just during Lent) An intentional prayer of confession as an element of our service. I'd like to once again restate why we do what we are doing here.

1. Congregational Prayer
   I once attributed the shift to this prayer format to our Asian Spice Sister, but in reality (as I was reminded after making that statement) it was my wife Joanna's idea when she was serving on staff as our Youth Pastor. If you're unfamiliar with our church - what we do every Sunday morning is open up the floor to the congregation to share what is going on in their lives so that we can pray together as a congregation for them. It can be awkward at first but as you start to understand the way our community is forming around this prayer ritual you will find that it's a very safe place to be transparent so that we as a community can love and care for you.
   
   One of the best parts of this service element is that we regularly get to hear about how God answered the very prayers we have prayed in the service. And the times of praise that come when someone shares how God has worked miracles in their lives are powerful and community shaping. It may pain me at a certain level as a pastor to say it - but I think that many of our people if forced to choose would rather see the sermon axed than this prayer time. And that's a really good thing.
   
2. Public Reading of Scripture
   Not quite at the level that Keith advocates for in his blog - but we do now have a practice of a weekly reading of the sermon text before the message is delivered. Some may ask how this is any different than the pastor reading his text in the intro to his sermon - the answer is nothing pragmatically and everything symbolically.
   
   By having someone else read the Scriptures we are making a statement that the Scripture stands on its own - that even if it were not explained and applied by the preacher (which are very good and important things - and why I spend so much time in preparation each week for my message) that it would still be important. That on it's own, the Scriptures have power to change lives and draw people closer to God. We also make a bold statement in who doesn't read the Scriptures in our services. Although last minute cancellations and extenuating circumstances like holidays or smowmageddon may force us to do otherwise, our aim is to never have a pastor, elder, or member of the worship team for that service read the Scripture reading. We made this decision because we believe the Word needs to be heard coming from the people of the church - not the leaders of the church. That in the spirit of what was fought for in the Protestant reformation - that the Word of God needs to be in the hands of the lay-person and that it's proclamation should come likewise.
   
3. Prayer of Confession/Litany of Penance
   We have incorporated a series of Litanies or responsive prayers focusing on penance and confession during the season of Lent this year. In part this has been an experiment to see how well received it would be by the congregation. By and large it has gone well but I'm waiting to debrief after the Lenten season with the leadership to see how everyone feels about whether or not we continue the practice. I'd love to hear your take on the matter whether pro or con.
   
   Personally speaking I have been really blessed by it - for all the reasons Keith so eloquently explained in his blog, and a few others.

Thanks for letting me share this with you on this 32nd day of Lent and I pray that it has been as thought provoking and informative for you as it has for me. Do me one more favour and go check out Keith's website at www.keithkitchen.com and take a look at what he has to say, and a listen to his music. I promis you'll be blessed.

Happy Lenting

Day Thirty-One

There has been lots of talk in the last few days about the Ontario Superior Court's ruling to strike down certain parts of the criminal code related to prostitution. There has been a lot of outrage at the ruling and also a fair bit of naive support. Here is a link to the ruling.

Supporters of this ruling are fundamentally right that prostitution is a dangerous lifestyle and that the women who have been exploited by the industry need significant changes to the criminal code to protect them from the inherent violence and trauma of their vocations. The problem however is that their celebrated solution will do nothing but legitimize and regulate an industry that is still at it's root, violent, exploitative and destructive.

There are better alternatives out there that have been tried and tested in other countries and proved to not only protect the women who have been victimized by the sex industry but also to actually promote meaningful societal change in the attitudes toward purchasing sex. One group that has been doing a fantastic job of advocating for these changes is Defend Dignity. (www.defenddignity.ca) 

Defend Dignity has posted an official response to the ruling that highlights some of their key recommendations on how to do a better job protecting these women than effectively condoning the act of prostitution. I would strongly urge you to take a look at their website to find out more about how you can become involved in the process of convincing our government to act. But for now here is the official response from Defend Dignity to Monday's court ruling. I think you'll find it's a better way forward.

Defend Dignity Response (a PDF copy can be downloaded here)

Ontario’s Court of Appeal ruled today on prostitution laws. The brief summary follows.
• The declaration of invalidity in respect of the bawdy-house provisions is
suspended for one year from the date of the release of these reasons.
• The amended living on the avails provision takes effect 30 days from the
date of the release of these reasons.
• The communicating provision remains in full force.

Defend Dignity is deeply disappointed that the court has failed to stand for the exploited and vulnerable. In response, we continue to call for the legal and social framework of Nordic law in Canada. We ask that Parliament give serious consideration to not change the existing laws, but rather make new laws based on the model of Nordic law first begun in Sweden.

In 1999, Sweden passed laws that decriminalized the women as the prostitutes and criminalized the men, the buyers of sex. Sweden did something no other country has done when it targeted the demand believing that if there were no demand, there would be no supply. Sweden also addressed the issue by offering exit strategies to the now decriminalized women. Millions of dollars were put into drug detoxification centers and job retraining for the women. 

What were the results? After just one year, there were 50% fewer prostitutes in Stockholm alone. And, the numbers of women being trafficked into the country dropped. Other surrounding countries are adopting these laws with similar results.

Nordic law has proven its effectiveness in treating all women with dignity and value.

The realities surrounding prostitution are that poverty is the number one reason women enter the sex trade. They are ineligible for welfare, often homeless and many with children to feed. They have few alternatives. Choices are made from privilege and decisions are made from scarcity. The decision to enter prostitution is most often made from this place. We must not view prostitution as a solution to female poverty!

Prostitution necessitates a group of women be made available for purchase by men. In Canada, it is the poor and marginalized who are in the majority of this group and very often, aboriginal women. We are far from a society that champions women’s equality when this is the reality.

Prostitution cannot be considered safe, even though the court believes that allowing bawdy houses will make prostitutes safe indoors. If we observe what has happened in other countries with decriminalized or legalized prostitution, we find that rules for brothels allowing only drug free women to work there limit many street prostitutes from working indoors. Also, women must be STD (sexually transmitted disease) free, even though there are no checks for male buyers. And, if johns become violent, brothel owners see it as bad for business to call the police. So, in reality, brothels do not provide the safety that the courts believe will happen.

Legalizing prostitution in the Netherlands and Australia reports that organized crime now finds these countries a lucrative destination. In 2008, the National Dutch Police carried out a study of human trafficking in the legalized prostitution sector, titled Schone Schijn. The researchers discovered that 50 to 90 percent of women in legalized brothels were there involuntarily. It is estimated that in Amsterdam alone, there are 4,000 victims of human trafficking annually. Because of the involvement of international organized crime networks in the legal and illegal prostitution sector, Amsterdam and Rotterdam have recently closed down a large part of their legal prostitution markets.

Nordic law is the solution Canada needs. We do not need prostitution decriminalized or legalized. Canada would benefit from the social and legal framework of Nordic law. 

For Rod

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

1 Corinthians 9:24-25, 2 Timothy 4:6-8 

Rest in Peace.

Day Twenty-Nine

Some encouraging words from the God who calms storms:

Happy are those who trust in the LORD,who rely on the LORD.
They will be like treesplanted by the streams,whose roots reach down to the water.
They won’t fear drought when it comes;their leaves will remain green.
They won’t be stressedin the time of droughtor fail to bear fruit. (Jeremiah 17:7, 8 CEB)

May the LORD carry you through this day.

Happy Lenting

Day Twenty-Eight (It will all make sense on Sunday)

I present to you (Noisy) Old Spice Guy, Terry Crews:



And again....




I promise you that this will all make sense at church tomorrow...

Happy Lenting

Day Twenty-Six

Sobering truth from the Twitter account of John Piper. (@johnpiper)

"Doing things in secret that you are ashamed for others to know is practical atheism. God's knowing doesn't count?"

Kind puts secret sin into a different sort of perspective doesn't it.

Happy(?) Lenting.

Day Twenty-Five (The day I can't keep silent any longer)

*************
UPDATE:

It has been brought to my attention that Rachel has now updated her blog with a follow-up post called 15 Reasons I Returned to the Church. I wish I had seen it before I wrote my comments as she does address some of my concerns in her response. I think that it went up somewhere between when I started writing my comments and when I posted my comments so I'll leave the entry up here as reflective of my thoughts at the time.


Thanks to all of you who have been interacting with me on this issue - it really is something much bigger than what Rachel was blogging about but her post really struck a nerve so I felt the need to respond.

*************

Okay I’m finally going to say something.

I’ve sat on this with this blog post open in my browser for two days now fighting a battle of "should I, or shouldn't I "within my soul, struggling with whether engaging in this conversation is worth my time or energy. In the end, although I probably don’t have the time and I certainly don’t have the energy, it bothers me so much that I need to say something so here is my best attempt at critiquing in a redemptive way. You can read the blog post I am responding to here. It's about why Rachel (among so many others in her, and my, generation) has left the church. And just so you know this is cut and paste from what I actually left in the comments section on her blog.

Rachel, I appreciate your blog. I appreciate the boldness with which you say things that need to be said. I often disagree with you on some of your theological presuppositions but I appreciate the dialogue you foster through your sometimes controversial posts. I know that Jesus loves you and I can tell that you really love Jesus so as a brother in Christ I’m coming to you concerned.

You have assumed a place of great influence within the online Christian community – especially within the Church of the emergent generations. You represent to us a needed counterpoint to the dominant conservative (theologically and politically) narrative that is being taught and disseminated by many other high profile Christian bloggers. I often strongly disagree with what you say – but I’m glad you’re saying it. I’ve been able to get past what I see as serious theological problems with many of your positions because I can also see the heart behind those positions and I’ve always tried to assume the best of people, including yourself, that they are teachable and submissive to the voice of God – and as such – in the end He will correct your misunderstandings (and mine!) if you continue to earnestly seek Him. My concern with this post though is not with any of the theological positions you take in your list of reasons that you left the church (small c), although I do disagree with several of them, but with the revelation in the post that you for the last several years have not been under the authority and guidance of a local assembly – while you have continued to serve as a voice of leadership to the online community.

Please understand – this is nothing to do with you being a woman – that is actually one area where you and I generally agree theologically – this is to do with you being a leader.

One of the greatest dangers in Christian leadership is that we start to formulate our opinions, theologies, and priorities in a vacuum. We begin to put too much faith in our own understanding, calling and leading without hearing and heeding the voices of the community of faith that has the function of pulling us back from the brink of heresy when we venture out into unfamiliar waters. One of the things I’ve appreciated about your philosophical sparring partner, Mark Driscoll, is that he is under the authority of his Board of Elders with what he says –and while I along with you still disagree with much of it, there have been several well publicized instances where they have corrected him on some of his more extreme teaching and theology. I have the same concerns about congregations that place themselves outside of denominational, or association based authority. I am a pastor in the Christian and Missionary Alliance and while my denomination is not perfect – I know that the fellowship and accountability between congregations in our family of churches keeps churches from being led astray by leaders with a lot of charisma but a dearth of biblical understanding.

Please read this with the heart is intended with. I’m sure as a mature Christian you have sought the counsel and advice of others in formulating your opinions and doctrine – but counsel without teeth is not accountability. It’s not enough to seek advice if there are no consequences to ignoring it. I would strongly urge you to find a congregation (of whatever stripe you feel most comfortable with) and place yourself under their authority. There are no perfect churches out there – but don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.  I honestly believe that your ministry (as fruitful as it has been) will be better for it.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I will continue to pray for you and your husband as you search for a community of faith to connect to.

In Christ,Christopher Smith

So there it is. In practicing what I preach I'm submitting myself to you all out there for critique. Have I missed the mark? Was I too soft on the issue? Please feel free to engage with me in your comments as well.

Happy Lenting.

Day Twenty-Four

An appropriate prayer for the season that I came across in my Vespers prayers last night:

A Lenten Hymn
Lord, who throughout these forty days for us did fast and pray, 
Teach us with you to mourn our sins, and close by you to stay.


As You with Satan did contend and did the victory win, 
O give us strength in you to fight, in you to conquer sin. 


As you bore hunger and your thirst, so teach us, gracious Lord, 
To die to self, and chiefly live by your most holy Word. 


And through the days of penitence, and through your Passion-tide, 
Yes, evermore, in life and death, Jesus! With us abide. 


Abide with us, that so, this life of suffering over-past, 
An Easter of unending joy we may attain at last! 

Claudia Hernaman

Happy Lenting.

Day Twenty-Three

This was today's midday psalm in my Lenten prayer liturgy and this is the reason that we make time in every service for people to share what God has been doing in their lives during our congregational prayer time. It is not good to keep bottled up praise that is due the Lord.

I’ve told the good news
of your righteousness
in the great assembly.
I didn’t hold anything back—
as you well know, LORD!
I didn’t keep your righteousness
only to myself.
I declared your faithfulness
and your salvation.
I didn’t hide your loyal love
and trustworthiness
from the great assembly. (Psalms 40:9, 10 CEB)

May we all be able to declare with confidence the words of the Psalmist. There is a chance to follow this example every single week at church and an extended time of testimony and prayer once a quarter, with the next sharing service coming up on April 1.

As my friend Travis' tattoos say: Keep the faith, but not to yourself

Happy Lenting.

Day Twenty-One

“Give us today our daily bread...”

This morning I got up and after my morning trip to the gym, came home and took Jack out for breakfast. He has a chart at home which has a scale from 10-1 on it and clipped to it are two clothes pegs with his and Harry’s names respectively written upon them. Every time he succeeds at something that challenges him (for Jack it’s usually eating his supper, for Harry it generally has to do with potty training) his peg moves up one place on the chart. And whenever they are particularly naughty, or disobedient their peg moves down a place on the chart (along with whatever other discipline is appropriate for the infraction). Last night, for the first time, Jack had his peg moved to space number 1, so this morning he got his reward.

He chose breakfast out with Daddy. That alone was enough to make my day.

When we got to the golden arches for breakfast I told Jack that he could order anything he wanted off the menu and he decided that he wanted a muffin and a hot chocolate. Unfortunately when we showed up the only muffins they had left were coffee cake and bran – I tried to encourage Jack to order something else (hotcakes perhaps?) but he was undeterred and wanted a muffin. So I chose what I thought for a five year old would be the lesser of two evils and got him a bran muffin, ordered a coffee for myself (there was no way I was sabotaging my diet for McDonalds breakfast!) and we sat down to eat.

As I had feared, Jack took one bite of that muffin and spit it out on the tray. There was no way that a bran muffin was a fitting reward for a boy who had worked so hard to get to space number 1 so I went back into the line-up and bought him a Cinapart – which he thoroughly enjoyed. But having prayed the Lord’s Prayer again not long earlier – the whole scene got me thinking.

As Jack happily tucked into his breakfast I thought about what it means to ask God for our daily bread in the context of my reality (and I would imagine the reality of anyone reading this). I had just taken my 5 year old to a restaurant and told him that he could have anything his heart desired – what do I need God for? He didn’t like what he ordered (there was nothing wrong with it – just not to his tastes) so I went and purchased him something else. Why am I bothering God with this petition?

I understand that in certain parts of the world, the required sustenance for a day’s nutrition does not come except for the grace of God – that in those places and those cultures asking God for their daily bread is not an empty request but a soul wrenching plea – but what about in mine?

I live in one of the most affluent parts of one of the most affluent countries in the world. My community is full of people who often have more money than they know what to do with and even the lower income earners are quite well off when compared to people even in other parts of Canada. People in my community are not poor because of a lack of earning power – they are poor because the disparity between the reasonably well off and the excessively rich drives up the cost of everything.  For all the wealth in my community it can be hard to convince someone that they really need God for anything – let alone their “daily bread”.

And I’m no different. When I pray to God for provision I’m almost exclusively praying for the extras of life. I’m not coming to him in desperate need – I’m coming to him because I want more than I can afford with my already ample resources. So how do I come to this prayer with integrity?

Well first I need to come with thankfulness. I need to recognise that in praying this petition, that I’m already experiencing the reality of the answer to my prayers. I need to come with the understanding – not just intellectual – but a deep soul understanding that the daily bread I’m enjoying comes from God and not by my own workings or merit. And secondly I need to recognise that Jesus doesn’t invite us to ask for any more than our daily needs in this prayer.

I was at a Lenten lunch service today where a friend and colleague of mine delivered a message on this petition (when God wants to teach you something he comes at you from many different angles). She based her message around Exodus 16:1-20 – the story of the manna and quail. Her message drove home to me once more what God had already been talking about – this prayer can be about more than just having our needs met – it is a warning against over consumption.

As I have been paraphrasing the Lord’s Prayer in my personal times with the Lord this Lenten season I have been elaborating on certain petitions to contextualize it for my own life. When I come to the request for my daily bread I usually add the proviso – “but Lord – don’t let me have more than I need. I don’t want to be a glutton on bread.” I pray this because I’m on a diet and I know how easy it is to go overboard. But as I have been praying that I feel like the Lord has been teaching me that praying for my daily bread is about asking for those limitations and guards to be placed in more parts of my life than my lunchbox. To ask God for provision is to ask to understand what it is that I need and by extension, what it is that I don’t need. To not comprehend this half of the petition (implicit though it is) is to be asking the Lord for jars filled with smelly, rotten, maggot infested leftovers rather than the life-giving manna he has offered us.

So I’m asking the Lord to give me less when I pray. To give me only what I need because on my own I’m week and I lack the conviction or resolve to deny myself on my own. I’m asking for my daily bread and nothing more. And perhaps if God can develop in me that kind of heart, when the days of feasting and plenty come in my life (and they come regularly – that’s the advantage of being a part of a church) I can enjoy them with a clear conscience, a thankful heart and an appreciation for how wonderful they are.

For today – the cheap part of me couldn’t let a perfectly good muffin go to waste. If Jack wasn’t going to eat it, I would. I’m not sure yet if that was provision or excess. Either way it tasted good.

God bless you today and happy Lenting.

Day Twenty

It's amazing sometimes how God can meet you and speak to you in places where you're not expecting Him. I've been taking a litte two day excursion up to Saskatoon with the community choir I sing in this week. Last night we attended a concert by the world renowned acapella ensemble the Kings Singers and was absolutely moved by the way I heard God present through he work of these amazing artists and their devotion to making things beautiful. Whether they were singing a moving sacred text or a silly "Chanson Francis" the evidence of the image of God being exercised in the art that is music was pervasive.

And while yesterday I really struggled to keep regularity with my prayer times as we travelled and had our day filled with activity I was blessed to have some deep "God conversations" with some pretty awesome people in unexpected ways. It just goes to show me that while routine and discipline are essential and oft-neglected components of the western Christian experience (which is why I'm focusing on them in my own life this year) they are not the heart of the Christian life, it's about making ourselves available to God and tuning our senses to watch for Him to move in unexpected ways and in unexpected places. Thanks be to God.

Happy Lenting

Day Eighteen

I'm going out of town for a couple days so I'm leaving you with my thoughts from last Friday's Lenten lunch which borrow heavily from my Lenten experience. Enjoy.

In this season of Lent as we look at the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer and consider the road to the cross that Jesus walked we would be remiss if one of the stops on our journey didn’t take us through Gethsemane. It was at Gethsemane, in Jesus’ hour of struggle and crisis of conviction, that we see our Lord putting into practice the very pattern of prayer that he taught us to follow.

In the garden as he agonized over his future he prayed to his Abba Father – modelling once again for us how we are to approach this infinite and mighty God as beloved children. In the garden he rebuked the disciples for their inattention and exhorted them that they pray that they should not fall into temptation – echoing the plea of the Lord’s Prayer; and in the Garden – at the time when it was most difficult – Jesus modelled for us the critical petition “your will be done.”

Today our Lenten series through the Lord’s Prayer brings us to focusing on that very petition; that God’s will would be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. What does it mean to pray the will of God? What does it mean to relinquish our wants and desires and place them under the sovereign rule and plan of our Abba father? What does it look like when God’s will is enacted in this place even to the degree it is in the Heavens?

Not everyone takes on the observance of Lent as a personal discipline or sacrifice anymore – especially not in many Evangelical churches like this one. Lent has been in many traditions a lost art form – but I have taken it on personally to rediscover this season in my own life and walk with God over the last few seasons and this year – as I have decided to surrender myself in prayer to God three times a day by praying the hours, God has shown me something amazing that is centred around this very prayer.

Every day, three times a day I have been coming to the Lord in prayer – following a liturgy of prayer though scripture, psalms, hymns and classic prayers to prime the pump of my soul and draw me into deeper times of listening and reflection and worship. The prayers change every day – but the one thing that is always consistent is that somewhere in the liturgy I pray the Lord’s Prayer. And as I have repeated that practice for the last 18 days praying through this prayer over 50 times already in this season of Lent I have discovered some things about praying for God’s will to come. And in the brief time I’ve been allotted here today I want to share with you those things.

To pray the will of God is to pray selflessly desiring God’s greatest glory. In Matthew 6:33 Jesus reminds to “...seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Praying for God’s will to be done is akin to humble ourselves before his majesty and declare that we don’t know what’s best. Not for us, not for others, not for the world. We may think we know what’s best – but it’s only in seeking first God’s will we experience what’s best.

We think we need praise, but God knows we need to learn humility. We think we need things faster, but God knows that what we need is to learn patience. We think we need more, but God knows that we will be happier with less once we learn contentment. We want that promotion, but God knows that it will lead to burn out. We think we know a lot of things – but God knows that we don’t.

To pray for God’s will to be done is nothing less than acknowledging that He is God and we are not – and choosing to live with the implications of that reality. Your will be done Lord Jesus is the true prayer of a Christian, and God is teaching its refrain to my heart this Lenten season.

Secondly, to pray the will of God is to rightly understand God’s goodness as a loving Abba father. There is no hint of defensiveness or self-protection in this prayer. It’s not just acknowledging that God knows what’s best for us, but that he wants what’s best for us. It’s understanding that God does not see us the way we too often see other people – as resources to exploit for our own gain, or as collateral pieces of a much larger plan that doesn’t really affect us. To pray for God’s will to be done is to affirm the implications of the first line of the prayer that God is our father and that we are his children.

Jesus reminds us of this fact in Luke 11 with these words: “Which father among you would give a snake to your child if the child asked for a fish? If a child asked for an egg, what father would give the child a scorpion? If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” I have three amazing children – Jack who is five, Harry who is three and Penelope who is eight months old – I can’t conceive of concocting a plan that would bring them harm, or wish them anything but the absolute best in life. My will is for them to grow, and experience blessing and joy and the fullness of life – sometimes that means not giving them what they want – but instead what I want; not because I’m a tyrant (at least not once I’ve had my morning coffee) but because in my fatherly wisdom I know that the things they want aren’t good for them. Do I think I am a better father than my heavenly father? Of course not – so I pray for His will to be done because I know that his will for my life is better even than my will for my children’s lives.

This Lenten season God is teaching me that he loves me by having me surrender my will to his.

And lastly, to pray the will of God come on Earth as it is in Heaven is to release God to work in every aspect of existence – no realm or sphere of society or cosmology is off limits to him – and more specifically to give him free access to every corner and facet of our lives – not restricting him to work only in certain rooms of our hearts – but everywhere.

I think that sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that God only wants a piece of us. Perhaps what we consider to be the best piece or perhaps just a token piece but in understanding that God wants to be involved in our lives we miss the point that anything less that 100% is not giving ourselves to God. Heaven is a place that we don’t really understand very well – it’s not our reality and the pictures we get painted in scripture form the brief glimpses that some of the authors have had are full of paradoxes and mysteries and unbelievable, impossible things. Like I said, it’s not our reality – rather it is the reality of God. Heaven is a place where God’s rule is absolute – where his sovereignty goes unchallenged by the sinful desires of people and where his power and presence are unveiled and inescapable. What the Bible teaches us is that the great mission of God is to bring that sort of kingdom to earth. That’s why we pray for his Kingdom to come – but while we are waiting for the fullness of God’s kingdom to be revealed in this world we are taught to seek out in breakings of God’s kingdom in our own lives through surrendering our desires to his perfect and glorious will.

When the will of God is enacted in this place – even as it is in Heaven – we experience God in a way that human language in all of recorded history has been unable to adequately represent. To experience God’s action of will as we will one day experience it in heaven is to ask to be exposed to God’s glory. It’s to ask with the bravado of Moses to “show me your glory” and to be transformed in the most inner places of our being by it. Praying for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven is asking for God to transform us and this world. It’s praying with a holy discontent for the state of humanity and creation and longing with the heart of God for things to be set right once again. This is what the Lord has been teaching me in my times of prayer.

So we come back to the idea of Lent. How does this prayer help us focus on this season of preparation for the cross? It’s quite simply this – when we pray for God’s will and not our own, we pray with Jesus in the garden. When we give up comfort so that God can do something better, we identify with our saviour who gave up everything so that God’s best will could be done in our lives. When we pray the prayer he taught us, we echo the heart beat of the saviour in our own chest. So God, this season, this year, this day – we ask as your people that your will would be done, in us, as it is in heaven. That your will would be done, in me, as it is in heaven.

To God be the glory. Amen.

Day Sixteen

Along with my morning prayers I also take time to do a few other things in the wee hours of the day before my children wake-up (or sometimes before I can no longer pacify them with chocolate milk and Disney Junior). One of the other things I do for my time with God is read a daily passage from A.B. Simpson's "Days of Heaven Upon Earth" which is a sort of daily devotional reading written by the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Sometimes I find Simpson especially poignant and yesterday was one of those days. Here is the full text of what he wrote for March 10 (the book is now public domain):

“How ye ought to walk and please God” (I. Thess. iv. 1).

How many dear Christians are in the place that the Lord has appointed them, and yet the devil is harassing their lives with a vague sense of not quite pleasing the Lord. Could they just settle down in the place that God has assigned them and fill it sweetly and lovingly for Him there would be more joy in their hearts and more power in their lives. God wants us all in various places, and the secret of accomplishing the most for Him is to recognize our places from Him and our service in it as pleasing Him. In the great factory and machine there is a place for the smallest screw and rivet as well as the great driving wheel and piston, and so God has His little screws whose business is simply to stay where He puts them and to believe that He wants them there and is making the most of their lives in the little spaces that they fill for Him.

There is something all can do,
Tho' you're neither wise nor strong;
You can be a helper true,
You can stand when friends are few,
Some lone heart has need of you,
You can help along.

It struck me because I know so many Christians who are antsy about their place in life - what are they doing, where will they be, could they be doing more somewhere else? I think what I'm hearing from this is  that God wants s to be fruitful where we are planted. We are not where we are by accident - and while God does call people to go (A.B. Simpson did found a missionary movement remember) we can't live our lives paralyzed from action because we're waiting for a call to something else.

Probably not my most coherent post of this Lenten season - but I think you can see what I'm getting at.

Just my thoughts for the day.

Happy Lenting.

Day Fifteen - Lessons on priorities

So yesterday I came into my office after lunch to a message that someone had stopped by over the lunch hour looking to talk to the pastor about a benevolence issue. I was told that this person would stop by around 1:30 again to see me. So I went into my office at about 3 minutes to 1 and thought to myself, "Excellent! I can sit down and do my midday prayers and be done before this person returns"

Less than a minute later this person comes back for their meeting.

I need to confess that while I was happy to have a pastoral visit - and am always happy to have people stop by - for some reason (clue-the reason was a sinful attitude) the timing really frustrated me. I saw this person as an interruption into my sanctified time with God in prayer that I have grown so desperate for over the last two weeks, rather than an opportunity to encounter Jesus. I was able to shake the resentment within the first couple minutes of our meeting but God wanted me to learn something out of that experience.

When I was able to help this person on behalf of the church and we bid our goodbyes there was a nagging sense of wrongness in my soul. Something simply wasn't as it should be, but I went back about the task of preparing for today's Lenten service at the church. It wasn't until about 40 minutes later when I realized that I hadn't returned to my midday prayers (that just about an hour earlier I was so frustrated to be taken away from) that God revealed to me exactly what was bothering me. Here is what was waiting for me in prayer:

The Refrain for the Midday Lessons
I have been young and now I am old,* but never have I seen the righteous forsaken, or their children begging bread.
Psalm 37:26

The Midday Psalm
Happy Are They Who Consider the Poor and Needy Happy are they who consider the poor and needy!* the LORD will deliver them in the time of trouble. The LORD preserves them and keeps them alive, so that they may be happy in the land;* he does not hand them over to the will of their enemies. The LORD sustains them on their sickbed* and ministers to them in their illness.
Psalm 41:1-3

The problem was that I made something more important in my heart than a person. That I loved my discipline (even for a short few moments) more than I loved my fellow human being. That for a short time there I was in my heart one of the goats (read Matthew 25:31ff for an explanation of what I mean). I guess my sanctification is still ongoing and I still have a lot to learn through this discipline of prayer.

May the Lord continue to teach me as I try my best o follow.
Happy Lenting.

Day Fourteen

I was talking with Waylon yesterday about his studies in Alliance History and the process of being filled with the Holy Spirit and in that conversation we got sidetracked into a discussion of obedience. Obedience and Grace and how the sometimes confusing distinction between the two concepts plays out in  the order of salvation I went to sleep last night thinking about this idea of obedience - which made it pretty cool this morning when I woke up for my morning prayers and opened my Bible to Jeremiah 11 and read this:

Jeremiah received the LORD’s word: Listen to the terms of this covenant and proclaim them to the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem. Say to them: This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Cursed are those who don’t heed the terms of this covenant that I commanded your ancestors when I bought them out of the land of Egypt, that iron crucible, saying, Obey me and observe all that I instruct you. Then you will be my people and I, even I, will be your God. I will fulfill my solemn pledge that I made to your ancestors to give them a land full of milk and honey, as is the case today.

And I replied, “As you say, LORD!”

The LORD said to me: Announce all these words in the towns of Judah and on the streets of Jerusalem: Obey the terms of this covenant and perform them. I repeatedly and tirelessly warned your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt to this very day, saying, Obey me. But they didn’t listen or pay attention; they followed their own willful ambitions. So I brought upon them all the punishments I prescribed for violating this covenant—for refusing to obey.

I'm getting the impression that God is trying to tell me something today about obedience. About unquestioningly, and faithfully following his leading - which in itself is a very appropriate Lenten theme as we remember the Son who went to the cross - ultimately against his own desires (as we see in the Garden of Gethsemane) but in obedience to the will of the Father. The question I'm asking God in my prayers today is this:

Is he calling me to obedience in something I've been thus far unfaithful in? Or is he preparing me for something in the future that will be difficult to obey? 

What is the Lord calling you to obey him in today? Happy Lenting.

Day Thirteen – the #Kony2012 edition

So unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 24 hours you’ll know that there are only two news stories worth talking about around the water cooler today. The first is the new iPad, and the second is the extremely viral video by Invisible Children that has sparked the Twitter and Facebook phenomenon that is #Kony2012.

Joseph Kony is a Ugandan Warlord who runs the LRA (the Lord’s Resistance Army) and is a man who is responsible for the murder, rape and mutilation of thousands of children while building himself an army of child soldiers. The video above is long – it’s a mini documentary of sorts that chronicles the history of Invisible Children and the movement they have started. It has received a ton of publicity today, and of course a fair deal of criticism as well.

Some are clamoring against Invisible Children because a large amount of their revenue goes into their production budget rather than into the projects in Uganda. Some are in an uproar because they are working along side the Ugandan Army who have also been accused by human rights organisations of similar crimes against humanity; and some are getting on their high horse about the fact that the video features too much of the filmmakers and not enough about the children and are lobbying accusations of narcissism at Invisible Children.

I was introduced to Invisible Children a few years ago when my wife came back from a youth conference having seen a presentation and purchased herself a pair of bracelets (they do this clever thing where their bracelets are sold in pairs so you can give one away and spread awareness). These people have taken on a monumental undertaking and I for one think that their cause is worthy of promotion.

It is likely true that Invisible Children are not the perfect organisation but to paraphrase a famous preacher - I like the way they do something poorly better than the way most people are doing nothing perfectly.


The stated goal of the Kony2012 campaign is to raise awareness of the issue to keep pressure on the government to do something about the atrocities happening in Africa. To raise awareness and to cause a groundswell of public support for their noble cause. So even if it means my Facebook and twitter feed are clogged up for the next while with people spamming this video, or people pontificating against them - I'll gladly put up with it if this very savvy viral campaign achieves it's goals. The lives of the invisible children matter too much to not care.

What do you think?

Day Twelve

Every so often as a pastor I receive phone calls or emails about things going on in the lives of people in my church. As a pastor it's a great blessing to be able to share in the things that God is doing in their lives - and sometimes (when appropriate) I have the opportunity and permission from those people to pass on the blessing by sharing with the world the good things that God has done and is doing. This morning I received this sort of unbelievable email from our Operation Christmas Child coordinator. Below is what  it said.

Good Morning, Had to share this.Yesterday morning I got a phone call, I thought he said Somalia.After the call was cut twice he made sure I had his email during the third call.It was from a fellow who had received a shoebox from me. 

In 2010 I sent a family picture with an address label on the back.  Our address labels have our phone numbers on. I emailed him and this morning I had a reply.He is from Sierra Leone, West Africa. John`s children received the boxes.  He works with the council of churches there as a Psychosocial Councelor, his wife is a teacher.They belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sierra Leone. He has asked for pray for his country elections this year.  They have four in November. `Please pray for a peaceful election.` In my 20 some years of doing shoeboxes I have never heard from anyone until now!

Next time you think that your little act of service, or your little token of compassion doesn't matter, I'd urge you to come back to this blog and read this email. Our God is so big that he can build a bridge between cultures with a shoebox. How is our great God going to use you today?

Day Eleven

What can I say but God is good.

If you somehow managed to miss the service this week you missed something special - I don't say that to make you feel bad, but how can I keep from singing the paise of a God who speaks to and through his people in such a profound and life changing way. If I don't say something I will be drowned out by the very rocks, so instead I will praise Him for what he has done.

This weekend I attended a board retreat in Regina with a wonderful group of men whom God has called and the church has appointed to lead our congregation. During that retreat we spent a significant amount of time talking about our times of worship at EAC and what we feel led to do to inspire more life. We asked how we could lead in such a way as to encourage freedom in worship, transparency in sharing, fellowship in suffering, unity in celebration, vitality in celebration, liberty in scheduling and participation from people who have been passive in our services. We had all these wonderful ideas of how we could help people get past themselves and recognize that God wanted to move amongst us in our worship and we agreeed to begin to plan to make some changes to facilitate this shift in culture. This was Saturday, I don't thing that any of us were prepared for what would come on Sunday.

It was as if God took out prayers and longings and said "you had not because you asked not" and on Sunday to my recollection every single desire and dream that we agreed upon for our service came true. In one glorious worship service it was as though God rended the heavens and entered into our worship in a way that was positively overwhelming. It would be very easy to stand up tall and pat ourselves as Elders on the back after a Sunday like that and say, "mission accomplished" we're it not for one small caveat - we didn't do anything!

All of our plans and ideas were for the nebulous period of time known as 'the future' none of us to my knowledge had any expectation (I certainly didn't) that we would see that sort of transformation the very next day! It was as though God was saying to us "its not what you can do, but what I can do. Now watch me as I bring life to this congregation."

I didn't do it.
We didn't do it.
God did it.

This was one of the best services I've been at part of in seven and a half years at EAC. What can I say but that God is good.

Day Nine

"Our Father who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven"

One of the features of my prayer discipline this Lent is that every single day I end up praying the Lord's Prayer three times. And when I pray that prayer I try hard to focus in on the words and not just to let it become mindless blabbering but to really mean what I'm saying. In doing that there are particular supplications that have really come alive for me - specifically the prayer that God's will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

When I pray these words in order to keep them real and alive I usually try to personalize them. I pray to my Abba Father God, and I pray for God's will to be done in My Life, in my family, at my church, through my work and so on and so forth. It may not seem like much but a few simple words have made that supplication come alive for me and made a repetive series of words a powerful reminder of what I'm living for.

Happy Lenting, and Lord let your Kingdom come and your will be done starting with me.

Day Eight

From the least to the greatest,
each is eager to profit;
from prophet to priest,
each trades in dishonesty.
They treat the wound of my people
as if it were nothing:
"All is well, all is well," they insist,
when in fact nothing is well.
They should be ashamed
of their detestable practices,
but they have no shame;
they don’t even blush!
Therefore, they will fall among the fallen
and stumble when I bring disaster,
declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 6:13-15 CEB)

Not specifically a part of my prayer discipline but from my time in the Word that accompanies morning prayers. A potent warning for those of us who consider ourselves ministers in the church motto ignore the sickness where see it, not to gloss over the reality of things that are not right, or things that are dead, or things that are sinful. To ignore a problem to keep the peace is detestable to the Lord.

These are scary words for a pastor. There can be no ostriches in ministry; burying my head in he sand when things are bad is not an option. A stern warning to start my day.